How to Make a Maker Faire

Mini Maker Faires are independently produced celebrations of local maker culture. Our city-facing Mini Maker Faire program provides tools and resources to help others to make a Maker Faire event that reflects the creativity, spirit and ingenuity of their community. Our K-12 School Maker Faire program provides a similar experience scaled for a school community.

The first Maker Faire started in 2006 in San Mateo, California, organized by the editors of Make: magazine. Our Bay Area event completed its 12th year, and has grown into a weekend-long celebration featuring 1100+ Makers and attracting 150,000 visitors. Our other flagship event takes place in New York City, this year with 700+ Makers, and 95,000+ attendees. 30+ larger-scale “featured” Maker Faires take place in cities such as Rome, Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, Barcelona, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Seoul, Cairo, Kuwait, Detroit, Kansas City, Milwaukee, and San Diego. In 2017 there will be over 225 Maker Faires in 38 countries around the world, reaching over 1.5 million people in person.

Despite the size of these larger events, the idea of Maker Faire can work at almost any scale.

In its simplest form, Maker Faire creates opportunities for conversations with Makers. Tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, authors, artists, students, and entrepreneurs all come together to show their projects and to talk about what they have learned. It is a community-based learning event that inspires everyone to become a maker, and connect with people and projects in their local community. Yet, Maker Faire is a “fair” — fun, engaging, and exciting.

It is a special experience, but the fundamental design of the event is one that can be reproduced almost anywhere. Thus we have built a Mini Maker Faire licensing program where interested organizations and individuals can apply to organize a Mini Maker Faire in their own communities.

To organize a Mini Maker Faire, you must apply for and receive a license. Before applying, please take the time to read through Vision, Planning, Process, Guidelines and Resources carefully. We sincerely look forward to learning more about your maker community, and helping you to celebrate and nurture it.